When he signed with Miami last year, Jose Reyes said, “They met with me at 12:01, and they showed me their plan that they have. It showed me they wanted to win, and I want to win, too. That’s why I made the decision to play in Miami.” I suspect the plan the Marlins showed Reyes did not include a trade before Thanksgiving 2012.

Leaving aside arbitration cases, Hechavarria is now the third-highest paid Marlin on the books for 2013. Mathis is the only Marlin on a multi-year contract through 2014. The Marlins are brutal.

Their own players know it.

Yup, pissing off your current best player by trading away all of your team’s competent big leaguers is usually a good way to go. Of course, winning baseball games is not the point here, slashing payroll and making money hand over fist, thanks to a new stadium and baseball’s revenue sharing is the point. Miami, a great city, and the fourth-largest metro area in the United States deserves better. Baseball deserves better.

Jeff Passan in July (!) on the Marlins’ ownership: “They’re awfully good businessmen, if you consider the ability to fleece feckless politicians and wring every last cent out of a metropolitan area a skill. What they lack in morals they make up for in social faux pas.”